SUMMARY ON ANIMAL LIFE. 121 



tapirs of America and Malaya ; the rhinoceroses and 

 elephants, of Africa and Asia ; the cavies and the sloths 

 of America ; the scaly ant-eaters of Africa and Asia ; 

 but none of these are sufficiently numerous to come 

 often before the traveller so as to affect his general ideas 

 of the aspects of tropical life, and they are, therefore, 

 out of place in such a sketch of those aspects as we are 

 here attempting to lay before our readers. 



Summary of the Aspects of Animal Life in the 

 Tropics. We will now briefly summarize the general 

 aspects of animal life as forming an ingredient in the 

 scenery and natural phenomena of the equatorial regions. 

 Most prominent are the butterflies, owing to their 

 numbers, their size, and their brilliant colours ; as well as 

 their peculiarities of form, and the slow and majestic 

 flight of many of them. In other insects, the large size, 

 and frequency of protective colours and markings are 

 prominent features ; together with the inexhaustible 

 profusion of the ants and other small insects. Among 

 birds the parrots stand forth as the pre-eminent tropical 

 group, as do the apes and monkeys among mammals ; 

 the two groups having striking analogies, in the pre- 

 hensile hand and the power of imitation. Of reptiles, 

 the two most prominent groups are the lizards and the 

 frogs ; the snakes, though equally abundant, being much 

 less obtrusive. 



Animal life is, on the whole, far more abundant and 

 more varied within the tropics than in any other part of 

 the globe, and a great number of peculiar groups are 

 found there which never extend into temperate regions. 

 Endless eccentricities of form, and extreme richness of 



